Item location assistant with custom price display

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for improving a shopping experience are described. When a shopper walks into a store, the shopper&#39;s mobile device transmits a signal with the shopper&#39;s shopping preferences and shopper profile. Any items that are within a certain distance of the mobile device and satisfy at least one of the shopper&#39;s preferences may light up to indicate that the item matches something the shopper is looking for. In addition, the price of the item based on the shopper profile for that shopper is displayed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 120, this application claims priority to and isa continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/229,730, whichwas filed on Mar. 28, 2014, the entire disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to assisting a user in a retailstore with his or her shopping needs.

Related Art

It is tedious to sort through and find items in a store. Often, thestore is crowded, items are placed too close together, and items are notin the correct place. A consumer typically must sift through racks andracks of clothing, or travel up and down different aisles before he orshe can find what he or she is looking for. By the time the consumerfinds what he or she wants, the consumer is tired and in a bad moodbecause of all the time wasted searching for an item.

In addition, there are several different classes of consumers. Forexample, one consumer may have a merchant loyalty card, another consumermay have merchant coupons or gift cards, and yet another consumer mayhave merchant reward points. Prices of items for these classes ofconsumers may be different for different items. Typically, only a singleprice is displayed the consumer, and a consumer is not informed aboutspecial discounts or prices until checkout. In several situations, theconsumer is not informed at all about special discounts or prices. Thus,a need exists for systems and methods that improve the shoppingexperience of users.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system for improving a shoppingexperience according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a method for improving a shoppingexperience according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system for implementing a deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are bestunderstood by referring to the detailed description that follows. Itshould be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identifylike elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, whereinshowings therein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of thepresent disclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure describes systems and methods that assist ashopper with finding items at a store. When the shopper is sensed in alocation where an item of interest is stocked, the shopper's attentionis drawn to the item location by, for example, illumination on or nearthe item. The illumination can be from a light device (e.g., a lightemitting diode (LED)).

In various embodiments, a service provider examines the shopping historyof a shopper and predicts the shopping preferences of the shopper.Shopping preferences include styles, sizes, brands, colors, prices,categories, merchants, etc. When a shopper walks into a store, theshopper's mobile device transmits a signal with the shopper's predictedshopping preferences. Any items that are within a certain distance ofthe mobile device and satisfy at least one of the shopper's preferencesmay light up to indicate that the item matches something the shopper islikely to be interested in.

In certain embodiments, the mobile device transmits the shopper'sprofile, and based on the shopper's profile, the price of the item ofinterest is displayed to the shopper. The shopper's profile describesthe type of customer the shopper is and/or what customer group theshopper belongs in. Accordingly, the shopper's profile includesinformation such as if they are a holder of a loyalty card or arefrequent shoppers, have coupons or reward points, what age group theshopper is in (e.g., student, adult, senior citizen, etc.), theoccupation of the shopper (e.g., military, police, fire department,etc.), and spending habits of the shopper (e.g., what the shopper hasbought in the past and how much the shopper has paid for various items).A shopper with a certain profile will be shown a certain price, i.e.,the price that will be charged at checkout. Advantageously, the shopperdoes not need to calculate the price on his or her own by checkingcoupons or rewards, balances, points, etc.

In an exemplary embodiment, a shopper walks into a clothing store. Inthe store, hangers on the clothes rack are equipped with small LEDlights located on the upper portion of the hanger where it is notblocked by the garment. The shopper's mobile device transmits theshopper's preferences (e.g., size) and the shopper's occupation (e.g.,military) to the clothes rack. The LEDs attached to hangers that matchthat size light up with a blinking or colored light. Only the hangersdisplaying that size clothing light up. The LEDs also form part of aprice tag or screen that displays a custom price for the shopper. Inthis embodiment, because the shopper is employed by the military, he orshe receives a discounted price. In an alternative embodiment, the LEDscould be attached to the clothing items or a tag hanging from theclothing items. The shopper may be notified, additionally oralternatively, by sound or other user perceptible means, such as if theuser is hearing or vision impaired, the store is loud or bright, orother factors that may make the notification more effective or apparentto the shopper.

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a block diagram of a network-based system100 adapted to facilitate item location and display of custom pricingusing a mobile device 120 over a network 160. As shown, system 100 maycomprise or implement a plurality of servers and/or software componentsthat operate to perform various methodologies in accordance with thedescribed embodiments. Exemplary servers may include, for example,stand-alone and enterprise-class servers operating a server OS such as aMICROSOFT® OS, a UNIX® OS, a LINUX® OS, or other suitable server-basedOS. It can be appreciated that the servers illustrated in FIG. 1 may bedeployed in other ways and that the operations performed and/or theservices provided by such servers may be combined or separated for agiven implementation and may be performed by a greater number or fewernumber of servers. One or more servers may be operated and/or maintainedby the same or different entities.

As shown in FIG. 1, the system 100 includes a mobile device 120 (e.g., asmartphone), one or more item location devices 130 (e.g., RFID tag), abeacon 140 (e.g., a BLE beacon) and at least one service provider serveror device 180 (e.g., network server device) in communication over thenetwork 160. The network 160, in one embodiment, may be implemented as asingle network or a combination of multiple networks. For example, invarious embodiments, the network 160 may include the Internet and/or oneor more intranets, landline networks, wireless networks, and/or otherappropriate types of communication networks. In another example, thenetwork 160 may comprise a wireless telecommunications network (e.g.,cellular phone network) adapted to communicate with other communicationnetworks, such as the Internet.

The mobile device 120, in one embodiment, may be utilized by the user102 to interact with the beacon 140 and/or the service provider server180 over the network 160. For example, the user 102 may conductfinancial transactions (e.g., account transfers) with the serviceprovider server 180 via the mobile device 120. The mobile device 120, invarious embodiments, may be implemented using any appropriatecombination of hardware and/or software configured for wired and/orwireless communication over the network 160. In various implementations,the mobile device 120 may include at least one of a wireless cellularphone, wearable computing device, etc.

The mobile device 120, in one embodiment, includes a user interfaceapplication 122, which may be utilized by the user 102 to conducttransactions (e.g., shopping, purchasing, bidding, etc.) with theservice provider server 180 over the network 160. In one aspect,purchase expenses may be directly and/or automatically debited from anaccount related to the user 102 via the user interface application 122.

In one implementation, the user interface application 122 comprises asoftware program, such as a graphical user interface (GUI), executableby a processor that is configured to interface and communicate with theservice provider server 180 via the network 160. In anotherimplementation, the user interface application 122 comprises a browsermodule that provides a network interface to browse information availableover the network 160. For example, the user interface application 122may be implemented, in part, as a web browser to view informationavailable over the network 160.

The mobile device 120, in various embodiments, may include otherapplications 124 as may be desired in one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure to provide additional features available to user 102.In one example, such other applications 124 may include securityapplications for implementing client-side security features,programmatic client applications for interfacing with appropriateapplication programming interfaces (APIs) over the network 160, and/orvarious other types of generally known programs and/or softwareapplications. In still other examples, the other applications 124 mayinterface with the user interface application 122 for improvedefficiency and convenience.

In various implementations, a user profile may be created using data andinformation obtained from cell phone activity over the network 160. Cellphone activity transactions may be used by the service provider server180 to create at least one user profile for the user 102 based onactivity from the mobile device 120 (e.g., cell phone). The user profilemay be updated with each financial and/or information transaction (e.g.,payment transaction, purchase transaction, etc.) achieved through use ofthe mobile device 120. In various aspects, this may include the type oftransaction and/or the location information from the mobile device 120.As such, the profile may be used for recognizing patterns of potentialfraud, setting transaction limits on the user, etc.

The mobile device 120, in one embodiment, may include at least one useridentifier 126, which may be implemented, for example, as operatingsystem registry entries, cookies associated with the user interfaceapplication 122, identifiers associated with hardware of the mobiledevice 120, or various other appropriate identifiers. The useridentifier 126 may include one or more attributes related to the user102, such as personal information related to the user 102 (e.g., one ormore user names, passwords, photograph images, biometric IDs, addresses,phone numbers, social security number, etc.) and banking informationand/or funding sources (e.g., one or more banking institutions, creditcard issuers, user account numbers, security data and information,etc.). In various implementations, the user identifier 126 may be passedwith a user login request to the service provider server 180 via thenetwork 160, and the user identifier 126 may be used by the serviceprovider server 180 to associate the user 102 with a particular useraccount maintained by the service provider server 180.

In various implementations, the user 102 is able to input data andinformation into an input component (e.g., a keyboard) of the mobiledevice 120 to provide user information with a transaction request, suchas a fund transfer request. The user information may include useridentification information.

In one embodiment, the mobile device 120 is configured to transmit theuser 102's shopping preferences and shopper profile (e.g., occupation,spending habits, age group, purchase history, etc.) by use of ashort-range transmitter so that when the user 102 approaches items at astore, items that meet the shopping preferences light up, responsive toreceiving the transmission that includes the preferences, and the priceassociated with the shopper profile is displayed to the user 102. Theshort range transmissions can be accomplished by transmission of aperiodic low power radio (or other medium) signal that includes theshopping preferences and the shopper profile. In an embodiment, once astore wireless terminal receives the signals, it identifies the matchingitems, causes a location indicator such as a light to alert the user 102of the item's location, and causes a custom price to be displayed to theuser 102.

The one or more item location devices 130, in various embodiments, maybe maintained by one or more business entities (or in some cases, by apartner of a business entity that processes transactions on behalf ofbusiness entities). Examples of businesses entities include merchantsthat offer various items for purchase and payment. In some embodiments,business entities may need registration of the user identity informationas part of offering items to the user 102 over the network 160.

In a store that includes multiple items, the item location device 130 isplaced proximate to one or more items for sale. For example, the itemlocation device 130 may be affixed to a display apparatus, such as ashelf, or directly to an item. In an exemplary embodiment, the itemlocation device 130 includes a hanger, tag, or label.

In another example, the item location device 130 may be incorporatedinto a price display system proximate to an item, such as an LED pricetag. The price display system can be any display monitor, screen, touchscreen, interface or other device capable of displaying information,including a digital liquid crystal display (LCD) or LED screen. In anexemplary embodiment, the price display system includes a backlight thatlights up to alert the user 102 about an item of interest and a displaycomponent to present the custom price to the user 102. In someembodiments, the color of the displayed price or the backlightidentifies a specific user, e.g., a user may be associated with aspecific color. For instance, the color blue may be associated with afirst user, and the color red may be associated with a second, differentuser so that each user can identify their own specific items of interestand/or specific custom price.

The custom price is determined, in various embodiments, by the user'sshopper profile. For example, a user who is a frequent shopper or has aloyalty card may be shown a price that is lower than a user who is not afrequent shopper. The price displayed to a user who has coupons orrewards stored in a digital wallet may be less than the price displayedto a user without coupons because the coupons and rewards can be appliedto the price.

The shopper profile may be compiled or determined in any suitable way.In some instances, some information is solicited when a user firstregisters with a service provider. The information might includedemographic information, a survey of purchase interests, and/or a surveyof past purchases. In other instances, information may be obtained fromother databases. In certain instances, information about the user andproducts purchased are collected as the user shops and purchases variousitems.

The item location device 130 includes a wireless communication deviceimplemented by any type of wireless communication method including, butnot limited to radio frequency (RF), infrared red (IR), Bluetooth lowenergy (BLE), Wi-Fi, inductive coupling, and ultrasound. In oneembodiment, the item location device 130 includes a radio frequencyidentification (RFID) tag or label.

In various embodiments, the item location device 130 includes an LEDlight or other light source that is powered on when an item associatedwith the item location device 130 matches one or more of the user 102'sshopping preferences. The item location device 130 may include an LEDlight of one color (e.g., red), or may include LED lights of differentcolors (e.g., red, yellow, green, blue, orange, purple, etc.) where thecolor of the LED light indicates what shopping preference is met (e.g.,red indicates that the item matches a color preference and greenindicates that the item matches a price preference). In one embodiment,the color of the LED light indicates how many shopping preferences aremet (e.g., green indicates that an item satisfies size, color, and stylewhile orange indicates that an item only satisfies size).

In another example, the color of the LED light indicates which items aremore highly recommended versus those items that are less recommended.The LED lights are used to indicate the relative popularity of an item.For instance, more popular items light up with a red color, and theleast popular items can light up with a blue color. In some embodiments,only items with a buyer's rating over a certain threshold are lit. Forexample, only highly rated toys for a 10-year old boy that are under $20may power on.

The item location device 130 can include multiple sets of LED lightsthat can light up for multiple users at the same time. The color of theLED light can indicate whose shopping preferences the item meets. Forinstance, when multiple users are in the area of the item locationdevice 130, a red LED light that powers on may indicate an item that afirst user is interested in, while a green LED light may indicate anitem that a second, different user is interested in.

In some embodiments, the multiple sets of LED lights display customprices for multiple users at the same time. The color of the displayedprice can indicate who the price is for. For example, a yellow coloredprice may indicate the price for a frequent shopper, while a purplecolored price may indicate the price for shopper in the military.

In some aspects, the LED lights on the item location device 130 can betriggered by the prices of items (e.g., custom prices). For example, allitems priced less than $20 may light up when user 102 approaches theitem location device 130. In another example, items priced between $50and $100 may light up when the user 102 is within the vicinity of theitem location device 130. The distance of the user from an item totrigger the visual indication may vary depending on various factors,such as density of items on the floor, type of item, etc., such as byturning the power of a BLE beacon higher or lower.

In one implementation, the LED lights are powered on for suggested itemsthat are frequently purchased along with an item that the user 102 haspreviously purchased (e.g., users who bought this item also bought this)or an item that matches the user 102's shopping preference. Thesesuggested items may be items best matching or complementary to the otheritem in terms of functionality, style, design, and/or graphics. Forexample, if the user 102 previously bought a pair of suit pants, asuggested item may be the matching suit jacket, a pair of pumps, or astatement necklace. In various aspects, related items can be marked witha special color.

Beacon 140 may be set up by merchants or individuals offering variousitems, such as products and/or services for sale. As defined herein, a“beacon” is a short range communication device having a known or fixedlocation that provides a signal that can be detected by mobile deviceswithin a certain proximity of the beacon. An example of a beacon is a RFbeacon (e.g., BLE beacon), infrared beacon or a RFID tag. For example, aBLE beacon can broadcast an RF signal that includes its positioncoordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude), which can be detected by amobile device. In some implementations, the beacon can also advertiselocation based services provided by a beacon network. A beacon networkencompasses a plurality of beacons in a geographic region.

Beacon 140 is typically maintained by one or more service providers.When the user 102 comes in range of beacon 140, a mobile application onthe mobile device 120 run by a service provider can wake up and connectto the beacon 140. Mobile device 120 can then receive messages frombeacon 140. In some implementations, beacon 140 is a BLE beacon.

Beacon 140 can output a wireless signal that can be detected by mobiledevice 120 when mobile device 120 is within a certain proximity of thebeacon 140. Beacon 140 may be a device that periodically or continuouslytransmits a signal, such as a short-distance wireless (e.g., BLE),medium distance wireless (e.g., Wi-Fi), and/or other electro, magnetic,and/or electro-magnetic transmissions. Power on beacon 140 can beadjusted to communicate only within a desired range, which may depend onintended message ranges. Mobile device 120 is configured to detect thetransmitted signals from beacon 140, such that when mobile device 120 islocated within the transmission range of beacon 140, the signal may bedetected.

The service provider server 180, in one embodiment, may be maintained bya transaction processing entity or an online service provider, which mayprovide processing for financial transactions and/or informationtransactions between the user 102 and one or more merchants As such, theservice provider server 180 includes a service application 182, whichmay be adapted to interact with the mobile device 120 over the network160 to facilitate the searching, selection, purchase, and/or payment ofitems by the user 102 from one or more merchants. In one example, theservice provider server 180 may be provided by PayPal®, Inc., eBay® ofSan Jose, Calif., USA, and/or one or more financial institutions or arespective intermediary that may provide multiple point of sale devicesat various locations to facilitate transaction routings betweenmerchants and, for example, financial institutions.

The service application 182, in one embodiment, utilizes a paymentprocessing application 184 to process purchases and/or payments forfinancial transactions between the user 102 and a merchant. In oneimplementation, the payment processing application 184 assists withresolving financial transactions through validation, delivery, andsettlement. As such, the service application 182 in conjunction with thepayment processing module 184 settles indebtedness between the user 102and a merchant, wherein accounts may be directly and/or automaticallydebited and/or credited of monetary funds in a manner as accepted by thebanking industry.

The service provider server 180, in one embodiment, may be configured tomaintain one or more user accounts and merchant accounts in an accountdatabase 192, each of which may include account information 194associated with one or more individual users (e.g., user 102) andmerchants. For example, account information 194 may include privatefinancial information of user 102 and merchants, such as one or moreaccount numbers, passwords, credit card information, bankinginformation, or other types of financial information, which may be usedto facilitate financial transactions between user 102, and one or moremerchants. Account information 194 may also include informationregarding user purchases, such as amounts spent, merchants frequented,products/services bought, and/or categories of products/services bought.In certain embodiments, account information 194 also includes shopperprofile information such as rewards, points, and/or coupons accumulatedby the user 102 for specific merchants, loyalty card programsparticipated in by the user 102, and demographic information for user102 (e.g., age, address, income, occupation, education, etc.). Invarious aspects, the methods and systems described herein may bemodified to accommodate users and/or merchants that may or may not beassociated with at least one existing user account and/or merchantaccount, respectively.

In one implementation, the user 102 may have identity attributes storedwith the service provider server 180, and user 102 may have credentialsto authenticate or verify identity with the service provider server 180.User attributes may include personal information, banking informationand/or funding sources. In various aspects, the user attributes may bepassed to the service provider server 180 as part of a login, search,selection, purchase, and/or payment request, and the user attributes maybe utilized by the service provider server 180 to associate user 102with one or more particular user accounts maintained by the serviceprovider server 180.

In various embodiments, the service provider server 180 includes ashopping preference application 186. The shopping preference application186 analyzes the user 102's purchases (both online and offline), learnswhat the user 102's shopping preferences are, predicts what items theuser 102 is interested in, and suggests items to the user 102. Forexample, the shopping preference application 186 can use collectedpurchase information in account database 192 to determine whatcategories of products or services the user 102 typically buys and theset of merchants frequented. This information can be used to driverecommendations or suggestions related to relevant products, categories,or merchants

In some embodiments, the shopping preference application 186 determineswhat contacts in the user 102's social network (e.g., friends,co-workers, family, etc.) have purchased and ensures that the user 102does not purchase an identical or similar item. For example, user 102 isplanning to go to a work function and needs to buy a dress for theoccasion. The application 186 determines what user 102's co-workers andothers attending the work function have bought, based on purchasehistory available in account database 192. Once the application 186knows what clothing they have purchased, the application 186 makes surethat identical clothing is not recommended or suggested to the user 102.In another example, the user 102 may be attending a bridal or babyshower and purchasing a gift. The application 186 can help ensure thatuser 102 does not bring an identical gift to the shower. Thus, even ifan item would otherwise be shown (or lit) as being a recommended item,the item will not be visually shown as recommended if the item waspurchased by a contact of the user 102. In one embodiment, adetermination is further made as to whether the user 102 may not want topurchase the item if a contact had also purchased the item. Factors mayinclude how long ago the contact purchased the item, whether the contactand the user 102 will be attending the same event (such as a wedding,birthday party, shower, etc.), the relative distances from the contactto the user 102 (such as at current locations, at the time of an eventthe user may be buying the item for, etc.), and how close in appearancethe recommended item is to the item purchased by the contact (such as ifit is the same color, has the same pattern, etc.).

Referring now to FIG. 2, a flowchart 200 of a method for improving ashopping experience is illustrated according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. In various embodiments, the user 102 registers witha service provider, which runs a mobile application. Registration mayinclude signing up for the service and agreeing to any terms required bythe service provider, such as through a user device. In one embodiment,the user device is a mobile computing device, such as a smart phone, aPC, or a computing tablet. In other embodiments, registration may bedone completely through the user device, partially through the userdevice, or without using the user device, such as through a phone callor in-person visit to a representative of the payment service provider.

The user may be requested to provider specific information forregistration, such as, but not limited to, a name, address, phonenumber, email address, picture, a user name for the account, and apassword or PIN for the account. The type of information may depend onwhether the user already has an account with the service provider.Requested information may be entered through the user device or othermeans, including voice or manual key entry. Once all the requestedinformation is received and confirmed, the service provider may createan account for the user.

At step 202, the user 102 enters a retail store with multiple items forsale and mobile device 120 makes a connection with beacon 140. Beacon140 passes mobile device details (e.g., user identifier 126) to serviceprovider server 180. The location information of beacon 140 is also sentto the service provider server 180. The beacon 140 at the store locationsenses user 102's presence by way of electronic communication withmobile device 120. As such, user 102's specific location inside thestore can be determined using the beacon 140.

At step 204, the service provider server 180 receives the location anduser ID of the user 102, and at step 206, uses this information topredict the user 102's shopping preferences (e.g., what items in thelocation would be of interest to the user 102). For example, if the user102 is located in the home goods section of a department store, theserver 180 determines if the user 102 is interested in comforters,pillows, sheets, lamps, mattresses, etc., and if so, determines whattype of item the user 102 is interested in. In various embodiments, theserver 180 analyzes the past shopping history of the user 102, includingproduct categories, brand names, specific product identifiers, styles,sizes, colors, prices, etc. If the user 102 previously bought an item ina product category with a specific brand name, the server 180 maydetermine that the user 102 has a brand preference. The user 102'sshopping history can be extended to predict several shopping preferencesof the user 102: what kinds of products the user 102 typically purchases(e.g., clothes or electronics), brand loyalty, merchant loyalty, andfrugality (e.g., the user 102 usually purchases the lowest cost optionor items on sale).

Instead of the user 102 taking the time to manually input specificshopping preferences, the server 180 studies what the user 102 hasbought in the past and learns what the user 102 is likely to want. Insome embodiments, the server 180 searches through data of the user 102'spurchases to look for patterns. For example, if the user 102 frequentlypurchases high heels, the server 180 can deduce that the user 102 has apreference for high heeled shoes.

With a large amount of shopping data, the server 180 can piece orcombine attributes or characteristics of items together to makerecommendations or suggestions to the user 102. For example, the server180 may determine that the user 102 likes the color red because the user102 frequently buys red lipstick, red shoes, and red stationery. Theserver 180 also determines that the user 102 enjoys baking because theuser 102 has purchased baking pans, cupcake pans, oven mitts, cupcakeholders, and cookie cutters. When the user 102 enters a Target® store,the server 180 can recommend a red KitchenAid® mixer to the user 102,even though the user 102 has never purchased a KitchenAid® mixer.

In another embodiment, the service provider server 180 examines what theuser 102 has bought in the past and analyzes what other shoppers whobought similar items viewed or purchased. For example, assume the user102 bought a collared crewneck sweater. The server 180 determines thatother shoppers who bought that same collared crewneck sweater or acollared crewneck sweater in the same style also bought a pencil skirttogether with the crewneck sweater. The server 180 can predict that theuser 102 is likely to have a shopping preference for a pencil skirt andalert the user 102 when a pencil skirt is nearby.

In one aspect, the server 180 may also determine a preference byaccessing a wish list or shopping list of user 102. In this way, user102 may only see specific items (such as desired size and price) thatare of immediate interest lit up, resulting in a more efficient shoppingexperience. Items of possible interest to the user 102, as predicted bythe server 180, would not be lit up, thereby only showing items the user102 has indicated a specific interest in.

In one embodiment, the server 180 analyzes what shoppers in the user102's social network have bought and protects the user 102 frompurchasing an identical item. As such, even though an item may otherwisebe recommended (on a wish list, correct size, desired color, etc.), theitem would not be recommended if the server 180 determines that the user102 may not want to purchase the item because a friend or contact of theuser 102 purchased the same or similar item. The server 180 canrecommend or suggest items that are similar in style, color, or designto the item.

At step 208, the server 180 transmits the predicted shopping preferencesof the user 102 and the shopper profile of the user 102 to the mobiledevice 120. The shopper profile includes information such as age group,spending habits, accumulated rewards and coupons, loyalty card programparticipation, and occupation. At step 210, the mobile device 120receives the shopping preferences and shopper profile and transmitsshort-range signals (e.g., RF signals) that include the shoppingpreferences and shopper profile. The signal is typically a short-rangesignal so that the transmission strength of the signal is strong enoughto be received by item location devices 130 only when the user 102 isclose enough to see the item location devices 130.

The range of distance between the mobile device 120 and the itemlocation device 130 is usually predetermined by the retail store. Inmost embodiments, the distance is based on the type and size of thestore. For example, in a large supermarket where a shopper can easilysee most items along an entire aisle, the range can be set to encompassthe length of the aisle. In a small, crowded boutique where the shopperhas a limited range of vision, the range can be set to be a circle witha small diameter. When the shopper is within range, the item locationdevice 130 lights up, and when the shopper moves out of the range, theitem location device 130 turns off.

At step 212, item location devices 130 that are associated with an itemthat meets at least one of the user 102's shopping preferences receivethe signal from mobile device 120 and alert the user 102. In oneembodiment, the item location device 130 includes an LED light thatpowers on upon receiving the signal.

Items may include clothing, hardware, supplies, food, etc. For example,if the predicted shopping preference is a pink t-shirt in a size 8, anLED attached to an item location device 130 (e.g., hanger) associatedwith such a t-shirt lights up with the blinking light. Only those itemlocation devices 130 displaying a pink t-shirt in a size 8 would lightup so that the user 102 would know at a glance what clothing items toinspect. The user 102 does not have to pick up each t-shirt and searchfor a size tag. In a hardware store, different types of nails made fromdifferent types of materials (asphalt, copper, or steel) and havingdifferent types of heads (broadhead, flathead, or no head) may bedisplayed. Only tags close to those nails that satisfy the predictedshopping preferences of the user 102 (e.g., asphalt with a broadhead)would light up. In an office supply store, different types of pens(ballpoint, rollerball, fountain) in different colors (black, red, blue)having different line widths (fine, medium, wide) may be for sale. Onlythose pens that match what the user 102 is looking for (e.g., blueballpoint pen having a fine line width) would be brought to theattention of the user 102. When in an aisle of a grocery store, tagslight up near the food items that the user 102 is likely to purchase orthat are recommended for purchase.

In exemplary embodiments, the item location devices 130 are incorporatedin a price display system. When the item location devices 130 receivethe user's shopper profile from the mobile device 120, at step 214, theitem location devices 130 can determine and display a custom price foran item that matches at least one of the user 102's shoppingpreferences. For example, the user 102 may be a frequent shopper at themerchant where the item location devices 130 are located, and a discountmay be applied to the “regular price” so that a discounted price isdisplayed to the user 102. In another example, the user 102 may be asenior citizen, and the senior citizen discount price is displayed tothe user 102. The user-specific price for the item may also, oralternatively, be displayed to the user 102 on the mobile device 120.

At step 216, the user 102 selects and pays for the item. For example,the user 102 may swipe a card at a merchant payee device. The payeedevice contacts the service provider server 180 and passes along thepayment request. The service provider server 180 receives the paymentrequest and processes the payment request so that the merchant is paidwith funds in the user 102's financial account.

In addition to sending a signal to highlight desired items, in anembodiment, mobile device 120 can also download an electronic map of thestore and guide the user 102 to the locations in the store that containitems that the user 102 is interested in. For example, the user 102 maybe shopping at Nordstrom, and the service provider server 180 determinesthat Nordstrom includes items that meet the user 102's shoppingpreferences in the clothing section, shoes section, make-up section, andhome section. The mobile device 120 can present a store map thathighlights locations in the store where items of interestare—identifying both where the items are, and where the shopper is.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a computer system 300 suitable forimplementing one or more embodiments of the present disclosure,including the mobile device 120, the item location device 130, beacon140, and the service provider server 180. In various implementations,the mobile device 120, the item location device 130, and beacon 140 maycomprise a mobile cellular phone, personal computer (PC), laptop, etc.adapted for wireless communication, and the service provider server 180may comprise a network computing device, such as a server. Thus, itshould be appreciated that the devices 120, 130, 140, and 180 may beimplemented as computer system 300 in a manner as follows.

Computer system 300 includes a bus 312 or other communication mechanismfor communicating information data, signals, and information betweenvarious components of computer system 300. Components include aninput/output (I/O) component 304 that processes a user (i.e., sender,recipient, service provider) action, such as selecting keys from akeypad/keyboard, selecting one or more buttons or links, etc., and sendsa corresponding signal to bus 312. I/O component 304 may also include anoutput component, such as a display 302 and a cursor control 308 (suchas a keyboard, keypad, mouse, etc.). An optional audio input/outputcomponent 306 may also be included to allow a user to use voice forinputting information by converting audio signals. Audio I/O component306 may allow the user to hear audio. A transceiver or network interface320 transmits and receives signals between computer system 300 and otherdevices, such as another user device, a merchant server, or a serviceprovider server via network 322. In one embodiment, the transmission iswireless, although other transmission mediums and methods may also besuitable. A processor 314, which can be a micro-controller, digitalsignal processor (DSP), or other processing component, processes thesevarious signals, such as for display on computer system 300 ortransmission to other devices via a communication link 324. Processor314 may also control transmission of information, such as cookies or IPaddresses, to other devices.

Components of computer system 300 also include a system memory component310 (e.g., RAM), a static storage component 316 (e.g., ROM), and/or adisk drive 318. Computer system 300 performs specific operations byprocessor 314 and other components by executing one or more sequences ofinstructions contained in system memory component 310. For example,processor 314 can receive the location and user ID of a user, analyze auser's shopping history, predict a user's shopping preferences, cause anitem location device to alert a user, cause an item location device todisplay a custom price to a user, receive payment requests, and processpayment requests. Logic may be encoded in a computer readable medium,which may refer to any medium that participates in providinginstructions to processor 314 for execution. Such a medium may take manyforms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media,and transmission media. In various implementations, non-volatile mediaincludes optical or magnetic disks, volatile media includes dynamicmemory, such as system memory component 310, and transmission mediaincludes coaxial cables, copper wire, and fiber optics, including wiresthat comprise bus 312. In one embodiment, the logic is encoded innon-transitory computer readable medium. In one example, transitorytransmission media may take the form of acoustic or light waves, such asthose generated during radio wave, optical, and infrared datacommunications.

Some common forms of computer readable media includes, for example,floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magneticmedium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, anyother physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM,FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other mediumfrom which a computer is adapted to read.

In various embodiments of the present disclosure, execution ofinstruction sequences to practice the present disclosure may beperformed by computer system 300. In various other embodiments of thepresent disclosure, a plurality of computer systems 300 coupled bycommunication link 324 to the network (e.g., such as a LAN, WLAN, PTSN,and/or various other wired or wireless networks, includingtelecommunications, mobile, and cellular phone networks) may performinstruction sequences to practice the present disclosure in coordinationwith one another.

In view of the present disclosure, it will be appreciated that variousmethods and systems have been described according to one or moreembodiments for improving a shopping experience.

Where applicable, various embodiments provided by the present disclosuremay be implemented using hardware, software, or combinations of hardwareand software. Also, where applicable, the various hardware componentsand/or software components set forth herein may be combined intocomposite components comprising software, hardware, and/or both withoutdeparting from the spirit of the present disclosure. Where applicable,the various hardware components and/or software components set forthherein may be separated into sub-components comprising software,hardware, or both without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure. In addition, where applicable, it is contemplated thatsoftware components may be implemented as hardware components andvice-versa.

Software in accordance with the present disclosure, such as program codeand/or data, may be stored on one or more computer readable mediums. Itis also contemplated that software identified herein may be implementedusing one or more general purpose or specific purpose computers and/orcomputer systems, networked and/or otherwise. Where applicable, theordering of various steps described herein may be changed, combined intocomposite steps, and/or separated into sub-steps to provide featuresdescribed herein.

The various features and steps described herein may be implemented assystems comprising one or more memories storing various informationdescribed herein and one or more processors coupled to the one or morememories and a network, wherein the one or more processors are operableto perform steps as described herein, as non-transitory machine-readablemedium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions which,when executed by one or more processors, are adapted to cause the one ormore processors to perform a method comprising steps described herein,and methods performed by one or more devices, such as a hardwareprocessor, user device, server, and other devices described herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a non-transitory memory;and one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memoryand configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory tocause the system to perform operations comprising: receiving a locationand a user identification associated with a user; determining, based onthe user identification, shopper preferences for the user; determining,based on the location associated with the user, that the user is withina predetermined distance of an item; determining, based on a level ofcorrelation between the shopper preferences and the item, a first colorfrom a plurality of colors, wherein each of the plurality of colorsindicates a different level of correlation; and causing an item locationdevice that corresponds to the item to illuminate the first color. 2.The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:determining, based on the user identification, shopper profileinformation for the user; and causing the item location device todisplay a price of the item for the user based on the shopper profileinformation, wherein the shopper profile information comprises at leastone of: a merchant loyalty card status, a frequent shopper status, amerchant coupon or a reward, an age group of the user, an occupation ofthe user, a spending habit of the user, or a past purchase of the user.3. The system of claim 1, wherein the level of correlation represents anumber of the shopper preferences being met by attributes of the item.4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:determining a second item that matches or complements the item; andcausing a second item location device that corresponds to the seconditem to illuminate the first color.
 5. The system of claim 1, whereinthe operation further comprise: determining that a second user islocated within a predetermined distance from the item; determining asecond color for the second user based on shopper preferences of thesecond user; and causing the item location device to illuminate thesecond color for the second user.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein theoperations further comprise retrieving a purchase history of the userbased on the user identification, wherein the shopper preferences of theuser is determined based on the retrieved purchase history.
 7. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the predetermined distance is determinedbased on a density of items at the location of the user.
 8. A method forimproving a shopper experience, comprising: receiving, by one or morehardware processors of a service provider, a location and a useridentification associated with a user from a beacon; determining, by theone or more hardware processors, based on the user identification,shopper preferences for the user; determining, based on the locationassociated with the user, that the user is within a predetermineddistance of a first item; determining, based on a level of correlationbetween the shopper preferences and the first item, a first color from aplurality of colors, wherein each of the plurality of colors indicates adifferent level of correlation; and causing an item location device thatcorresponds to the first item to illuminate the first color.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, further comprising: determining, based on the useridentification, shopper profile information for the user; and causingthe item location device to display a price of the first item for theuser based on the shopper profile information, wherein the shopperprofile information comprises at least one of: a merchant loyalty cardstatus, a frequent shopper status, a merchant coupon or a reward, an agegroup of the user, an occupation of the user, a spending habit of theuser, or a past purchase of the user.
 10. The method of claim 8, whereinthe level of correlation represents a number of the shopper preferencesbeing met by attributes of the first item.
 11. The method of claim 8,wherein the determining the first color comprises determining a densityof the first color based on a distance of the location of the user froma location of the first item.
 12. The method of claim 8, furthercomprising: determining, based on a second level of correlation betweenthe shopper preferences and attributes of a second item, a second colorfrom the plurality of colors; and causing a second item location devicethat corresponds to the second item to illuminate the second color. 13.The method of claim 8, further comprising: determining that a seconduser is located within a predetermined distance from the item;determining a second color for the second user based on shopperpreferences of the second user; and causing the item location device toilluminate the second color for the second user.
 14. The method of claim8, further comprising transmitting the shopper preferences to a mobiledevice of the user.
 15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium havingstored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause amachine to perform operations comprising: receiving a location and auser identification associated with a user; determining, based on theuser identification, shopper preferences for the user; determining,based on the location associated with the user, that the user is withina predetermined distance of an item; determining, based on a level ofcorrelation between the shopper preferences and the item, a first colorfrom a plurality of colors, wherein each of the plurality of colorsindicates a different level of correlation; and causing an item locationdevice that corresponds to the item to illuminate the first color. 16.The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein theoperations further comprise: determining, based on the useridentification, shopper profile information for the user; and causingthe item location device to display a price of the item for the userbased on the shopper profile information, wherein the shopper profileinformation comprises at least one of: a merchant loyalty card status, afrequent shopper status, a merchant coupon or a reward, an age group ofthe user, an occupation of the user, a spending habit of the user, or apast purchase of the user.
 17. The non-transitory machine-readablemedium of claim 15, wherein the determining the first color comprisesdetermining a density of the first color based on a distance between thelocation of the user from a location of the item.
 18. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the level of correlationrepresents a number of the shopper preferences being met by attributesof the item.
 19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15,wherein the operations further comprise: determining that a second useris located within a predetermined distance from the item; determining asecond color for the second user based on shopper preferences of thesecond user; and causing the item location device to illuminate thesecond color for the second user.
 20. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations furthercomprise transmitting the shopper preferences to a mobile device of theuser.